Lee Perfect Powder Measure....accurate?

[snayperskaya]

How accurate is the Lee Perfect Powder Measure? and does Viht N140 meter nicely through it?.

I realise they are cheap and more expensive measures are available but I'm not reloading masses of rounds and only one calibre so if the PPM is good I can leave it set for one charge.

[dromia]

It is as accurate as your scales are, that is what will determine the weight that the cavity throws.

It will be as consistent in the charges it throws as the operator is consistent in using it.

Its main draw back is that it is mounted on a sprung steel bracket which doesn't help with consistent throws, mounting it onto something solid helps greatly.

It is not my powder thrower of choice but serviceable enough for the price but you will need to learn its foibles and put in time to learn to throw consistent charges.

I find the Pro Auto disk a far better powder thrower all be it a fixed cavity the disks can be easily worked on to give the charge you want if it isn't available on one of the disk cavities, when used with the rifle charging die it works very well with the mechanical operation dampening out operator error and giving a far more consistent throw.

[bradaz11]

I find it very much depends on the powder if my perfect powder measure throws reliably or not. tried it with vhit powders and it was awful, used it for greendot and it was excellent. YMMV.

I agree with Dromia about the pro auto disk, but I upgraded to the auto drum powder measure, and love it! as reliable as the pro auto disc with none of the drawbacks of fixed cavity. the only issue i had with it was self imposed.

it has worked perfectly with any powder I have thrown (through) at it.

[Sim G]

I am a huge Lee fan. But the "Perfect" powder measure is far from it! It's rubbish to my mind...

[phaedra1106]

Weird it regularly gets very good reviews for consistency of throw against the usual more expensive offerings. I had no problems with mine using Viht N140 through it.

The newer auto-drum is supposed to also be very consistent.

Like Dromia I use Pro Auto-disks for my progressives and they work very nicely with Viht N310, TiteGroup and Nobel GM3.

[snayperskaya]

My Lee Loader came with a 3.1cc dipper, the PPM dispenses in cc's but to level fill the 3.1cc dipper I have to set the PPM micrometer to 3.26cc!.....am I missing something as surely if I set the PPM micrometer to 3.1 then it should more or less consistently level fill the 3.1cc dipper?.

I think I'll just weigh each charge on the scale but it's bugging me about the PPM setting.

[meles meles]

We've been very impressed so far with our Lyman Gen 6 powder measure / scale thingummy...

[dromia]

My Lee Loader came with a 3.1cc dipper, the PPM dispenses in cc's but to level fill the 3.1cc dipper I have to set the PPM micrometer to 3.26cc!.....am I missing something as surely if I set the PPM micrometer to 3.1 then it should more or less consistently level fill the 3.1cc dipper?.

I think I'll just weigh each charge on the scale but it's bugging me about the PPM setting.

Why would you assume that, that would assume that all the Lee stuff is made to tight tolerances and quality controlled to ensure consistency, not so.

At the end of the day you are throwing a charge by weight using a volume measure, also powder differs, not only tween different powders but also the same powder in different batches. The only way to ensure that you are loading the correct charge is to weigh it on a set of good and consistent scales verified by check weights.

Lee get away with the dippers and tables in their die sets as the loads are always very conservative but no one should be reloading without a good set of scales and check weights.

Using a powder measure well takes a lot of practice and an understanding of the tools foibles, even then I always check every fifth thrown charge on the scales.

The best use of the powder measure is in conjunction with a good set of balance beam scales and the Target Master trickler, that combination is the fastest and most accurate powder dispensing system I know of with every charge being a weighed charge. Set the dispenser to throw a charge a few 1/10 ths of a grain under your load and let the Target Master trickle up to the correct weight.

[1066]

Laurie Holland did an excellent review of powder measures a while ago in Targetshooter magazine. Anyone who had read Lauries articles will know just how meticulous he is. The Lee compared very favourably with even the very best measures:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/49879348/Targ ... March-2011

Personally I weigh every charge so any measure will do, it just gets you to within a grain or two and a few seconds trickling does the rest.
All measures work on the same principle, powder flows into a hole at the top and flows out when you pull the handle.

Yes, they can be fairly accurate but do need practice and a consistent method, they're no more accurate than the Lee yellow dippers, they work just the same.

[phaedra1106]

For full load rifle charges I use either a Hornady L&L auto dispenser with a Shooting Shed "thingy" bunged in the end of the dispensing tube or a large dipper, 5-0-5 scales and a Target Master with a cheapo WebCam coupled to my Android phone. Both methods are very accurate :)